a little history?

Something I didn't know: Pittsburgh was the home of the first movie theater. According to a "Pittsburgh Timeline Moment" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today:

"A tiny room on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh became the birthplace of a gigantic industry when John P. Harris opened the first Nickelodeon there in 1905. For the first time, the public could go to a theater dedicated exclusively to motion pictures. Harris quickly achieved finincial success by charging just 5 cents for admission to a 12-20 minute show. With Harris' 96-seat Nickleodeon drawing approximately 7,000 customers per day, other theaters quickly sprang up in cities and towns across the nation, creating a mass market for 'the movies.'"

This photo was taken in 2004 of the Harris Theater on Liberty Avenue, which I now assume is named after the above-mentioned Harris.